"It is not possible for all hospitals to have a trauma team on call with the necessary experience, organisation and support structures.

"We need to look at how we can organise trauma care on a regional basis."

The Royal College of Surgeons said care urgently needed to improve.

A spokesman said: "Our mortality rates are among the worst in the developed world, and yet trauma care remains a low priority for the government.

"This a national health service and what we need is a national trauma system."

Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said: "We have argued for some time that it is not the proximity of the nearest A&E that matters to most trauma victims but the care they receive from ambulance and paramedic staff and the quality of care they receive once they arrive at hospital.

"Concentrating trauma treatment in specialist centres can arouse opposition from some people concerned about 'downgrading' of their local A&E facilities, but what the opponents often fail to recognise is that lives will be saved and the quality of care improved, as this report makes clear."